Blended Family Wills

What is a blended family?

The term ‘blended family’ is used to describe families where you and or your partner have children from previous relationships. You may also have children of your current union.

What are the estate complications of a blended family?

It can be quite challenging as a member of a blended family to work out how you would want to share your wealth when you pass away. This is because there are competing interests and potential estate claims to weigh, between your children from other relationships and your current spouse and step-children.

The risks of an estate claim

The most commonly litigated estate scenario is between a subsequent spouse and children of the willmaker’s previous relationships. It is therefore important to get the right legal advice on what provision to make to minimise the risk of claim, and what strategies can be put in place to safeguard your estate so that it passes in line with your testamentary wishes. Because estate claims are very expensive and can fracture families for generations, it is vital to spend the time to get it right now while you can. Fortunately, many of the risks can be significantly minimised with a robust estate plan.

There are many options and a number of good strategies and solutions that we can offer, crafted to meet your particular requirements. The estate plans that we are commonly seeing litigated in the Courts now are blended family cases that have not been given the proper level of thought and attention during the estate planning phase.

Strategies to minimise risk

As part of our planning meeting with you, we take time to find out what you want to achieve and we look at your assets and relationships carefully. We then brainstorm with you a number of solutions from which you can choose ‘the best fit’. Like a good suit, you’ll know the solution that feels right. A number of our clients have said that they had in the past made several attempts at working out the answer, with no success, until they saw us.

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    Meet With Your Lawyer

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    Frequently Asked Questions

    We have also designed a fact sheet on avoiding the ‘L shaped Inheritance®‘ for you to read.

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